About this blog

We will cover the telecommunications ecosystem composed of service providers, network equipment manufacturers, and mobile. While the originators of the blog are from IBM Rational it will not be limited to that in scope.

Tags

Will someone other than Android or iOS start gaining mindshare and how does that affect the whole telco infrastructure

With the Nokia Lumina 920 (Windows mobile OS) getting some
good reviews and BlackBerry 10 (due out in Q1 2013) getting some good early
reviews involving its browser the question is, will this help break up the
Android and iOS domination of the cell phone sales . An answer may come from
whether or not the CSPs decide to help promoting these phones in their stores
(virtual or physical), since many people buy through discounts and promotions
from their CSPs. The first question is why would the CSPs be interested given
the extra investment needs in supporting other OSes? The second question is how
does having other other options affect the end users?

The first question may boil down to the CSPs ability to
compete not just on price and connectivity but also on functionality. With more
phones and OSes driving differentiation CSPs can get back to what they do best,
building out different functionality, selling secure services for
infrastructure, etc. In building out this functionality it enables them to
target different segments of the market specifically like secure services for
business users, specific networks for industry needs, etc. With everyone always
choosing only certain OSes the options on phones the end users in these
business chose were getting much more limited and hence the CSPs were limited
in how to differentiate.

The other question is why should consumer care? In this case
the reason is because more OSes mean the potential for not just increment
improvement but true innovation. The ability to tightly integrate to your own
company’s network or directly onto your Windows machine are some of the ways
innovation can occur. Add to those basic concepts different ideas about the
best UI experience and we can see true innovation in a strongly growing
marketplace.

Quarantine this entry

You touch on some good points. We need other OS mobile technology
options in order to spur innovation and both Windows 8 and Black
Berry 10 have the ability to deliver to consumers the platforms
needed to challenge Apple and Android platforms. I have always been
a BB fan and the BB 10 OS looks very appealing - fast, intuitive,
and filled with advanced features. It should push the others to
even more creativity. I look forward to the new year and my new BB.